I. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a fit or shoe for use with a conventional hollow core panel door. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a fit for use in a modified or shortened hollow core panel door.
II. Description of the Related Art
Hollow core panel doors are widely used in interior environments such as residents, offices, etc. The widespread use of such hollow doors is due to their aesthetic appearance as well as their light weight properties and low cost when compared to solid wood doors. Hollow core panel doors are typically constructed with standard height and width dimensions to fit standard doorways. Thus, such doors are typically manufactured with recessed portions in a long edge of the door to accommodate hinge brackets for hingedly fixing such doors to a doorway. When positioned in a standard doorways above a floor, a small clearance of approximately 1 inch is typically provided between the bottom edge of the door and the floor.
When an existing dwelling is modified such as by replacing an existing flooring e.g. by installing carpeting, hard-wood floors etc., such modification results in a reduction, and in some cases, removal of the clearance between the floor and the bottom edge of the door. As a result, unless the doors are modified, such as by shortening the doors in height, the doors will become difficult to operate because the bottom of the door will scrape or become impeded by the newly installed flooring.
To avoid this problem, typically the existing doors are shaved down or reduced in height by an amount (for example, by approximately 2 inches) so that the doors can be remounted to tie doorways and, again, have adequate clearance between the bottom of the door and the new floor.
A problem that exists with hollow-ore paneled doors, however, is that when the doors are reduced in height, which is typically accomplished by sawing the bottom edge of the door, the bottom rail of the door which functions to provide support between opposing front and rear door panels to prevent such panels from beveling or flaring out, will no longer be present. As a result, the opposing front and rear door panels will no longer be supported and will tend to flare in or out or warp over time, thereby resulting in a non-aesthetically pleasing modified door.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a door fit or shoe that can be used in a modified panel door to prevent panel beveling or warping.